Spanish Rioja Wines Video Transcript
Written By: Anonymous on Mon, Dec 4th 2006
Brian Freedman: Welcome to the Classic Wines Minute brought to you by ClassicWines.com; I am Brian Freedman. Now, today we're going to be tasting two Riojas both from 2004, both from the $10 to $11 price range and both readily available in your local wine shop.
So, the question for today's tasting is this; "Is there that big a difference between two $10 bottles of wine from the same wine region from the same vintage?" Let's find out.
Our first one is the Faustino Rioja; this is a 2004; and again, this is about $10 wine depending on where you buy it. Alright, so we give this a good swirl, get some oxygen in there. Something green on the nose, there's something slightly under-ripe - absolutely smelling new oak - new world oak. It has that brash American oak sort of aroma going on there; lacks that subtlety that you get with a lot of that French oak. But certainly, this can work as long as it's in keeping with the wine.
So, we smell this. First, there it seems a little bit sharp; there's a sharpness to it; I am wondering about the acid in this wine, but let's see what happens when we taste.
Yeah, I mean you can tell it's that American oak. I mean it's trying to round out some of those rough edges there but to me -- and well, there's some cinnamon there, a little bit of vanilla from that oak. What's ruining it for me is, the tannins are so overwhelming -- I don't think because the tannins themselves are out of whack, but because the acid is; and I think the acid is really magnifying that quality and it's just -- yeah there's no finish. I am really not a huge fan of this; I think for $10 we could do a lot better. 100 point scale, I am going to give this, let's call it an 83 - I mean you can do a lot worse, but you could do a whole lot better.
Alright, so wine number two, while I am rinsing out my glass here is the Sierra Cantabria Rioja. This is also a 2004. Same price range maybe a dollar or two more expensive depending upon where you find it. So we give this -- it's a pretty color, dark ruby, little garnet. Alright, now the fruit on this nose, much rounder, much more ripe -- I wouldn't call it lush, but it's heading in that direction - nice combination of crush, red, and blackberry fruit. Certainly again, you get some of that oak but it's not as aggressive as that -- what I'd like to believe is American oak in the Faustino.
Give this a taste. Again, not much in the way of finish but that ripe redberry fruit comes through, maybe some blackberry fruit - still 3:08 that the fruit tastes fresh, but it's not overwhelmingly under-ripe. Again, I think you pair this up with the right food, I think this could be absolutely delicious, maybe some fat protien to smooth out the edges. 100 point rating, I'd say, I'll probably give this one, oh, an 85 or an 86. Let's give it an 86; we're feeling saucy today.
So, I think the lesson we learn today is that within the $10, $11 price range, when it comes to red, there's a huge range of quality; and what you need to do is just taste as many of them as you can, discover what you like best and what speaks to your palate the most, and stick with that one. For ten bucks I think the Sierra Cantabria, great deal.
I am Brian Freedman on behalf of ClassicWines.com. Keep tasting.
